The chairman of the board at Aller and owner of Aller Press, Bettina Aller has issued a statement where she strongly condems all illegal methods that are described in the case against S&H.

She emphasize that it is therefore extremely important that the third party investigating this get full access to all information and all data.

The lawyer heading the internal investigation at Aller Press, Henrik Stagetorn has advised Bettina Aller not to say more to the public about this. An advise the intents to follow.

- Well, she could hardly say anything else.
Anyway, as I understand it she is not involved in the daily running of the individual magazines. It's more the bottom line and sales figures she's interested in and S&H is just one of many magazines.
Personally I don't think she would have known about illegal activities.

"I thought it was a pretty amazing source to have if you had to find where famous people was at a given time. If an editor come and ask if you will go down to Cafe Victor because there sits Crown Princess Mary and having a good time with a friend.. and if you can take a photographer with you.. then it's just to leave and getting down at Cafe Victor." - another former journalist from SeogHør, Kenth G. Madsen.

Henrik Stagetorn is the son of Merethe and Ove Stagetorn, both lawyers and very good ones that is.
Marianne Stagetorn Kolos, the daugther of Merethe and Ove Stagetorn, owns the old cakery "La Glace" - the cakeanswer to "Ida Davidsen".

Gosh! I bet the royals will stop using their credit cards for now...if that is possible for them (Queen Margrethe does not have one...I wonder if the DRF will follow her example...at least for now).

You known...I just had a sickening thought. What if there are more people like this Nets person and we just don't know about them yet. Could you imagine the magazines having a source in banks for example?

The worse thing about this is...the good journalists will be tarnished and viewed in the same manner as these corrupt journalists! If the jobs of journalists was difficult before...it is going to be downright impossible from now on!!!

The worse thing about this is...the good journalists will be tarnished and viewed in the same manner as these corrupt journalists! If the jobs of journalists was difficult before...it is going to be downright impossible from now on!!!

I don´t think that the DRF will turn their backs at the journalists from BB. There has always been a good relationship between BB and the DRF.

But I do think that the journalists from S&H will not be talked to at all now.

You known...I just had a sickening thought. What if there are more people like this Nets person and we just don't know about them yet. Could you imagine the magazines having a source in banks for example?

You nailed it.
Because if it happened here in DK - and partially in Norway too, remember. Then it can and will happen elsewhere.

Nets is under heavy fire now for inadequate security. Or perhaps rather for being too naive and too trusting of their own people.
Especially as a S&H photographer warned Nets in January last year, with examples of leaks. But Nets superficial investigation back then, if any, led nowhere.
There are people at Nets right now who don't need reflexes on their clothes when going out at night, their glowing ears will do...

My guess is that certain people will get credit cards based on false identities. And the rest of us will only be registered with numbers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FasterB

But I do think that the journalists from S&H will not be talked to at all now.

Absolutely, they'll be parias now.

The rest of the press is up in arms here in DK. Partly because:

A) It's a major scandal and interesting, and many journalist are truly appalled.

B) It makes their work and reputation (which isn't too good as it is) even more difficult. And they fear restrictions, that may come from this.

C) Journalists, like everybody else, love to talk about themselves and their work.

D) And not least, a number of those monitored by S&H are journalists themselves...
The rest of the press corps will show no mercy now, neither towards S&H nor Aller Press.
There will be no code of silence, like there perhaps still is in for example the British press.

Anyway, the noose is tightning. Text messages send from the source at Nets to S&H have now been published. One of them was about Joachim, the other about a wellknown journalist on his honeymoon.
Tracking down another wellknown journalist on her holiday in Italy and taking pics of her topless via her credit card won't be forgiven either!

A picture of the culture of S&H here in DK (and my guess in Norway and Sweden as well) is emerging. They basically felt like renegades and outlaws in relation to the rest of the press, who generally treated them with contempt.
And in that environment moral scrouples went down the drain - or you simply left.

This is how the text messages from the source to journalists at S&H looked like.
Jokke is the nickname for Joachim.

BT and DR1 have a lot of these messages for documentation, including some about Mary.
Without having the abillity to lift off the roof at Amalienborg and peer in, I think I can safely say that Frederik at least is absolutely ballistic! We know how annoyed he can be when it comes to his family. This would have send him into a fit of unprecedented rage!

Police complaints and civil lawsuits are pouring in against S&H and Aller Press. Especially directed against the CEO, Pål Thore Kråsby, as having the ultimate responsibillity.

The second highest ranking manager within Aller Press, Per Ingdal, is also getting in trouble, since there are more and more indications pointing to him knowing about the sorce at Nets. So far he has wisely decided to keep his mouth shut.

So far the DRF seems just to be monitoring the situation and I doubt they'll do anything until the police has finished its investigations.

So far, Lars Løkke, former Prime Minister and in most likelyhood the next PM as well, is also monitoring the situation. But as he is almost guaranteed to head a majority government after the next election the press has every reason to fear restrictions.

Nets can also expect civil lawsuits en masse.

- The damages rewarded after civil lawsuits here in DK are peanuts compared to say USA, it's the damage to the reputation of companies after losing such a lawsuit that counts.

According to their article, it's common thay employees peek at people credit card transactions. I.e. peeking without a professional reason.
To access bank accounts and local credit cards you need in individual's social security number. But if that individual has an international credit card, and who hasn't, then you can aquire the social security number that way and with that you can monitor all the transactions by that person.
To make it even more idiotic, you can in theory access these information from day one of your job at Nets.

Considering that Nets apparantly don't use personal codes, nor restrict access to any particular degree like they do in municipal registers, the security is hopeless!
On top of that the employees having access to these info are often very young, and very junior. All they have to do is to get their criminal record from the police and that is blank they can be hired, after signing the standard pledge to not reveal any confidential information.

Now, dear readers, how do you think security is in regards to your credit cards?

Media Watch claim to be in possession of a note proving that the very top in Aller Norway, Erik Aller, was informed by the editor-in-chief of S&H Norway, that they had used illegal sources to dig out info about bank accounts og the NRF and Norwegian celebs.

The source and the former editor-in-chief, Henrik Qvortrup, have both hired an attorny and made appointments with the police next week, where they will show up for questioning.

Considering that Aller Press has requested their employees to not say anything public until the internal investigation is over, the employees, - former, present and suspended employees, - are talking like budgies on speed!
It has emerged that ordinary Danes were tagged too, if they for whatever reason happened to be in the public glare. i.e. in connection with a crime or a major accident. The primary reason apparently being to locate them.

The second head has rolled. A former employee at S&H, then employed at Ekstra Bladet has resigned from that job. - Or been resigned... I guess even Ekstra Bladet has limits...

Now that the going ons at S&H has been more or less fully exposed, the attention is turning on Nets, where security, at least in my mind, seems to be laughable.
Politicians are openly talking about cancelling government contracts with Nets. Flaws in the security which has been pointed out to Nets have only been dealt with when the agency that monitor data-security here in DK have knocked them on the head and told them to.
I find it hard to see how the current management in Nets are going to survive this. The future of the company itself may be in danger now.

The airplane companies have started investigating whether their employees may have leaked info about the DRF or celebs to S&H.
Naviar has found one. That employee has been suspended immediately. The soon former employee tipped off S&H ten years ago - and that has now cost him/her a job where he has been for at least ten years and the chances of getting a similar job elsewhere are to put mildly limited.

Nets have completed their internal investigation today. One employee, and not even a high ranking or specialised employee, did systematically leak info to S&H.
The management at Nets are now desperately trying to explain away why he hasn't bee exposed before.
Apparantly he was easy to track down, simply because he accessed the system at odd hours. But no alarmbells seemed to have started to ring - or they were ignored.

OMG! This makes me so sick to my stomach! Can you imagine? You are a member of the DRF...your life is so public in many ways and yet...you are not allowed one iota of privacy? Your credit card transactions are being tracked! You can't get on an airline without your presence being leaked to the media!!
Goodness...I would be so paranoid if I was a member of the DRF...or a celebrity for that matter.
I take so much for granted in my life...the privacy and anonymity....for all the perks of being royal...I think that sometimes, the price is really too high!!! Kudos to Crown Princess Mary that she has coped with it for the past 14 years!

IIRC Henrik Qvortrup used to be very critical towards CP Frederik, always questioning his work ethics. And now Qvortrup's own ethics are in question. I wonder if Frederik feels a teeny weeny bit of Schadenfreude.?
There is a (Indian?) saying: If you sit by the river long enough you can see the bodies of your enemies floating by.

IIRC Henrik Qvortrup used to be very critical towards CP Frederik, always questioning his work ethics. And now Qvortrup's own ethics are in question. I wonder if Frederik feels a teeny weeny bit of Schadenfreude.?
There is a (Indian?) saying: If you sit by the river long enough you can see the bodies of your enemies floating by.

Well, if he doesn't then I'm willing to admit that I do feel a good deal of schadenfreude.
Qvortrup never showed mercy, or just common decency, towards those S&H dealt with. So I see no reason to pity him now.

The word karma has popped up in many comments and articles about this mess.

And another head is on the block: http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Kultur/Medi.../06/153509.htm
Per Ingdal, second in the Aller Press management, has announced today that he will go on maternity leave today, earlier than planned, to ensure that the internal investigation can go ahead without being accused of covering up.
Per Ingdal was a substitute inbetween editors-in-chief at S&H and apparantly more active in the daily running of the weekly than he would like to appear.
So I think it's safe to guess he's "been gone" on maternity leave...

And hold on to your hats...! The editor-in-chief at S&H has aired the idea of introducing ethical guidelines for the journalists (those remaining I assume) working at the magazine.
- I don't know if I should laugh or go make a phonecall in the big phone in the bathroom. - Well, staying within the law might be a good start...

Well, if he doesn't then I'm willing to admit that I do feel a good deal of schadenfreude.
Qvortrup never showed mercy, or just common decency, towards those S&H dealt with. So I see no reason to pity him now.

TV2 claims to have learned that S&H systematically paid an employee at Rigshospitalet. Apparantly someone who had access to pregnant patients booking a time for being scanned.
One of them is a local Tv-phenomenon, Anders Lund Madsen, who used to work Ekstra Bladet. He was among the celebs monitored by S&H, or so he is absolutely convinced. During a scan a few years ago the child his girlfriend was carrying turned out to be dead. A few hours later S&H called them and congratulated them on the happy circumstances.
Anders Lund Madsen sued, and won. And since then it's safe to say S&H has had a mortal enemy in Anders Lund Madsen. An enemy with brains and a considerable public appeal - not to mention that he is a journalist.

So far Rigshospitalet haven't been able to find any proof of anyone informing S&H. But if TV2 has three different sources confirming that story it will only be a matter of time, before a name is revealed.
The members of the DRF are also rutinely scanned at Rigshospitalet, but the security around them is usually even tighter than normal celebs.

The leak at Nets has now formally been charged by the police.

And now for a disturbing thing. Qvortrup may get off the hook. He stopped as editor-in-chief of S&H in 2008 and a professor at law has said that due to statutes of limitations, which is five years or in grave cases ten years, he may walk free.
But his career and chances for employment are of course questionable.

TV2 claims to have learned that S&H systematically paid an employee at Rigshospitalet. Apparantly someone who had access to pregnant patients booking a time for being scanned.
One of them is a local Tv-phenomenon, Anders Lund Madsen, who used to work Ekstra Bladet. He was among the celebs monitored by S&H, or so he is absolutely convinced. During a scan a few years ago the child his girlfriend was carrying turned out to be dead. A few hours later S&H called them and congratulated them on the happy circumstances.
Anders Lund Madsen sued, and won. And since then it's safe to say S&H has had a mortal enemy in Anders Lund Madsen. An enemy with brains and a considerable public appeal - not a mention that he is a journalist.

So far Rigshospitalet haven't been able to find any proof for anyone informing S&H. But if TV2 has three different sources confirming that story it will only be a matter of time, before a name is revealed.
The members of the DRF are also rutinely scanned at Rigshospitalet, but the security around them is usually even tighter than normal celebs.

The leak at Nets has now formally been charged by the police.

And now for a disturbing thing. Qvortrup may get off the hook. He stopped at editor-in-chief of S&H in 2008 and a professor at law has said that due to statutes of limitations, which is five years or in grave cases ten years, he may walk free.
But his career and chances for emplyment are of course questionable.

this is even more creepy. Hospital records being leaked disturbing to say the least